"Housing development will decimate sunlight in my garden"

A BLACKHEATH resident is sounding the alarm over a housing development which would plunge her garden into DARKNESS.

The hugely controversial project would see the construction of a four-storey apartment block in Blackheath Station Car Park – right next to Emma’s home in Collins Street.

Emma has discovered through a planning report she commissioned that the building would block sunshine from reaching all but just 7% of her garden.

It comes after more than 1,200 objections were filed against the development, including by celebrities such as Jude Law and LBC presenter Nick Ferrari.

Residents are now calling on Lewisham councillors to reject the project, which would bring 45 flats to the area, when it comes before the planning committee on Tuesday.

Emma's garden — **PICTURED: The sunlight in Emma’s garden will be “decimated” by the apartment block**

Emma, 39, told the Lewisham Letter: “The report we commissioned found that the sunlight in our garden will be decimated by the block.

“At the moment, 73% of the garden receives sunshine for two hours a day or more. That will fall to 7% if the block is built as planned.

“The applicant says that around June time it won’t be so obstructive but we use our garden from April through to October, we love spending time there.

The proposed block of flats — **PICTURED: The plans would bring 45 flats and three commercial units to Blackheath**

“It’s going to affect our lives massively.”

Sheona Norton, 33, who lives next door to Emma, said she and her husband are considering selling their home if the development is approved.

She said: “We were planning to have children here but we’d have to rethink that because our kids would be brought up in darkness.

The proposed Blackheath housing site — **PICTURED: 7 Collins Street (in the bottom right of this image) is right next one of the three planned buildings**

“I get that we need to build homes but they should have another look at the plans, it needs to be scaled back. There shouldn’t be apartments here, we should have family homes.

“A row of Victorian-style terraced houses along the street would work perfectly. The community is willing to listen if the proposal is right.”

The residents also expressed concerns about the impact the flats will have on their privacy, despite the developers promising to use frosted glass for the windows of the flats.

“Housing development will decimate sunlight in my garden”

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